The Anti-Corruption Bureau – ACB- says it has launched 30 investigations into the alleged duping of farmers by officers responsible for Affordable Input Program (AIP) at Smallholders Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) and Agricultural Development Marketing Corporation (ADMARC).
Speaking to journalists in Mzuzu on Tuesday, ACB director general, Martha Chizuma, said the said officers are allegedly demanding an addition of K3, 000 to the government set price of K7,500 from farmers so that they should aid them to buy the inputs.
“There were so many problems that we found across the country, because the bureau visited about 100 AIP selling points and out of that, there are some issues that we dealt with there and then because they just probably touched on service delivery.
“But there were others that were really clearly corrupt acts, and most of them were cases of extortion where AIP officers were demanding additional money to be paid to them to sell the farm input to the farmers. So, those are the cases that we will be investigating and dealing with,” explained Chizuma.
She added that the battle to end corruption is for every Malawian as ending it seems to be a hard to win battle.
However, Chizuma stilll hinted on the need to end corruption in Malawi, saying the nation’s 2063 ambitions hinge on a corruption free society.
Recently, ACB called upon the judiciary in Malawi to rapidly work on the high profile corruption cases that are alleged to have drained at least K1 billion of the taxpayer’s money.
